A lesson from arborist Joe Mcphail

Written By Robin Wade

My buddy, City of Florence arborist Joe Mcphail asked me to drop by this morning.

He knew this day would come, but has been putting it off for years.  In Joe's back yard was the states largest sassafras tree.  (Not by the record book-because it split into two early in it's life).  With a diameter of over 70", let's just say it's a begun.

Either way, now it's history. It was cut down yesterday. It had around 70 good years.  Who know's what form it might take on next.  

Huge Alabama sassafras tree killed from "topping"

Tree "topping" seems to be a common practice, at least around here, with tree services.  A storm comes through and trees are topped.  Someone is nervous about limbs falling on a home and trees are topped.

This beautiful old massive sassafras was topped 18 years ago, when a previous homeowner was present.

And yesterday it had to come down.  Learn from this sassafras tree's deadly mistake.   Topping trees kills trees.

I got some video of Joe sharing more details of the historic tree and the "topping" problem, and will post when I get it uploaded, etc.

Robin Wade
Robin Wade Furniture is a celebration of nature—a melding of a forward thinking commitment to the environment and a quiet, harmonious design aesthetic. From his "slow studio" in North Alabama, award-winning wood artist Robin Wade designs and crafts one-of-a-kind handmade furniture. Years before a piece is ready to enter a client's home or a gallery, the process begins—naturally—with the tree. Sustainably harvested, each specimen of hardwood is flitch sawn into natural-edge wood slabs, debarked by hand with a draw knife, and stacked to dry, usually for years, before the final cure in the kiln. From here, Wade and his team use both hand and power tools to bring Wade's vision to life, and then finish each piece with a hand-rubbed oil blend. Each organic furniture creation by Robin Wade Furniture balances the raw, natural beauty of environmentally, locally sourced hardwoods with minimally invasive, clean lines—a juxtaposition Wade calls both rustic and modern. “I haven’t yet found a better artist than nature,” he says.
robinwadefurniture.com
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